So Many Options

Most entrepreneurs seeking help from college students offer
minimum wage internships or college credit. Grif Frost, CEO of
SakeOne, a sake producer in Forest Grove, Oregon, provided an
entirely different level of "extra credit": stock
options. As a class project, students from the University of
Portland's Entrepreneurial Marketing course were asked to come
up with innovative marketing ideas for SakeOne. The reward for the
winning student teams was 10,000 stock option shares in the
company.

Class instructor Rob Peterson, who is now a SakeOne shareholder,
first brought the idea to Frost. The stock options seemed like a
good trade for the opportunity to get into the minds of
SakeOne's target market. "The students are the same age as
our prospective customers," says Frost. "They teach us
what our market wants. Also, they bring our company a whole new
level of creativity."

Inspired by the stock option incentive, the students pitched
ideas ranging from an inventive three-bottle Sake carrying pack to
a line of bathing accessories called Sake Scents. Says Frost,
"[Sake Scents] opened my mind to sake's potential within
the cosmetic industry. Then, bam! We received a major contract for
our sake from a cosmetic company in France." Talk about a
smart investment.